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  • The Turn of the Screw: Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism
  • Mary Joseph
The Turn of the Screw: Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism. Ed. Peter G. Beidler. New York: St. Martin’s, 1995. 313 pp. $39.95.

Part of the Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism series, Peter G. Beidler’s edition of Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw, the only James text in the series, more than lives up to the bill of fare promised by the series editor Ross C. Murfin in the opening paragraph of “About the Series.” Explanatory footnotes, analytical/critical essays written expressly for this edition, ample bibliographies, and a glossary of critical terms are among the many riches of this volume.

The entry into “the current critical and theoretical ferment in literary studies” for the college student has been made easy with essays that are not only informative, but also illuminating and clarifying. The complete text chosen here is that of the authoritative New York Edition, and the theoretical perspectives selected for the critical evaluations—reader-response, deconstructionist, psychological, feminist and marxist—are representative of the contemporary critical spectrum. The volume is one that can be superbly used not only as a textbook for courses in fiction in general and in Henry James in particular, but also in literary criticism.

The book is divided into two parts. In part one, the introduction by the volume editor, Peter G. Beidler, composed of biographical and historical contexts, places the complete text of the New York Edition that follows and “relevant parts” of James’s preface in their natural environment. The word “relevant” prompted me to refer to the preface to James’s 1908 edition to check what parts might have been considered “irrelevant.” The investigation showed that the preface to The Turn of the Screw was provided in its entirety, and that only James’s prefaces to three other stories (included in the original preface) were omitted. Thus, “situated biographically, historically, and critically,” the work is examined in five critical essays, each representing a theoretical perspective of importance to contemporary literary studies. These essays, prepared especially for undergraduates, “show theory in praxis,” and “demonstrate how current theoretical approaches can generate compelling readings of great literature”(v). As Murfin continues, “Each introduction presents the principal concepts of a particular theory in their historical context and discusses the major figures and [End Page 104] key works that have influenced their formulation”(v). The footnotes, in addition to explaining literary, artistic, and psychical allusions, elucidate Jamesian expressions that might be unfamiliar to a novice reader. Without explanation, “hung fire” (23) and “muff” (41), would only confuse a beginner. So also, the opening sentence of section 6 (48). Usages that may not be current today and words whose popular meaning have changed are clearly explained as well. For example, on page forty three, “intercourse” is stripped of its current sexual meaning. The footnote on the page defines the word as “Dealings or communications between persons or groups, interchange of thoughts and feelings,” and goes on to add that “The word had not yet come to carry overtones of ‘sexual intercourse.’”

Part two, “A Case Study in Contemporary Criticism,” also begins with an essay by volume editor Beidler—this time, an excellent summary of the critical history behind The Turn of the Screw. Each of the five critical perspectives is then introduced by series editor Murfin in essays that apply the respective theories to The Turn of the Screw. For the student who might be intimidated by critical terminology, each critical perspective is clearly defined and explained. He defines reader-response criticism by saying what it does: “focus[es] on what texts do to, or in, the mind of the reader, rather than regarding a text as something with properties exclusively its own” (153). After defining deconstruction, “the most complex and forbidding of contemporary critical approaches to literature,” (179) by saying what it is and what it is not, Murfin assures the reader that “Deconstruction offers a playful alternative to traditional scholarship, a confidently adversarial alternative, and deserves to be approached in the spirit that animates it” (180). Psychological criticism is made simple by showing the relation between literature...

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